


Coppice

by shopfront



Series: Love & Lovage [2]
Category: The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
Genre: Established Relationship, Everybody Lives, F/F, Magic, Post-Canon, Rebuilding, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:35:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27286543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: Hunting witches leads Chloe away from New York, but even Kaulder and their mission can't keep her away forever.
Relationships: Chloe/Miranda
Series: Love & Lovage [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007448
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	Coppice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reeby10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/gifts).



“I can’t stay any longer, I’m sorry,”Chloe said, squeezing Miranda’s hand.

“I don’t understand,” Miranda said groggily as she tried to sit up.

Chloe quickly moved to press her back against the bed. “No, don’t move; potions can only do so much. I’m afraid you still have a lot of healing to do the old-fashioned human way.”

Miranda did as she was told and relaxed, letting her lightheadedness fade away again as she struggled to absorb Chloe’s words.

“Healing which you won’t be here for,” Miranda said with no question in her voice.

Chloe pressed a hand against her mouth, visibly fighting back emotion as she bent her head to kiss the back of Miranda’s wrist. “I’ll be back,” she promised grimly.

“When?” Miranda asked, just as Chloe’s phone started buzzing.

“I don’t know. We made a few enemies over these last few days. You’ll be safer without me here, at least until you’re back on your feet,” Chloe said as she fumbled in her pocket for her phone.

She pulled a face when she read the screen, and dropped one last kiss on Miranda’s wrist. Smoothing her thumb over the place her lips had just touched, she stood up. Miranda could only watch as she dragged her hand through her hair, narrowly avoiding dislodging her up-do and looking harried.

“I’m sorry, I’m already late, but I _will_ be back, Miranda,” was the last thing she said as she slipped her brown leather jacket back on and ducked out of Miranda’s hospital room, already half-way to running.

“I know you will,” Miranda whispered, still watching until the last glimpse of red hair had long disappeared down the hall.

*

Chloe looked at her phone again with a frown as she got out of the cab. _Meet me at the bar_ , the text said, but when she looked up things didn’t look very different to when she’d left New York. It might have been months since she’d left but nobody had put so much as a lick of paint over the burnt out, gutted building that had once housed her beloved bar.

Sighing, she hit dial and waited as she tucked her other hand in the crook of her elbow to try and guard it from the chill of fall in the air.

“Well I’m here and I can’t see you on the sidewalk. Are you running late?” Chloe asked as soon as she picked up.

Laughing, Miranda just replied, “come inside,” before hanging up on her.

Frowning, Chloe walked over and hesitantly reached for the door handle. It looked like it should’ve crumbled away to nothing in her hand, but it felt surprisingly sturdy under her fingers and the door swung open smoothly. Eyebrows raised, she registered the tingling sensation of a barrier spell washing over her as she stepped through.

Deeper in the building she could hear muffled footsteps and Miranda’s familiar absentminded humming. She followed that sound, hoping like hell that the floor beneath her feet was more stable than it appeared.

“That’s an interesting spell on the entrance. Are you trying to keep repairmen away? Only, I’m not sure that’s a very wise idea given the state of the place,” Chloe said once she’d found Miranda crouched in the centre of the main bar area, looking at something on the ground.

“I tried repairmen,” Miranda answered without looking up as Chloe picked her way down the staircase carefully. “They all left screaming, and what they did manage to get done before they left never seemed to make much of a difference.”

Tilting her head, Chloe blinked for a minute before starting to laugh incredulously. “Have you been playing games with humans, Miranda?”

Smirking, Miranda only tilted her head to the side thoughtfully and considered the question while Chloe’s laughter stuttered to a stop.

Eyes narrowing, Chloe started across the room. “You should be careful about that. You never know what the council might do if they find out,” she said as she walked up behind Miranda. “Don’t underestimate them, Miranda. I know they took a bad hit but I’ve been hearing rumours about them lately. They could still take you in if you they wanted to.”

Finally looking at her, Miranda stood up to pull Chloe into a hug.

“It’s good to see you,” she said, burying her face in Chloe’s shoulder when Chloe reeled her in.

“It’s good to see you, too,” Chloe responded, tightening her grip, “and it's not that I'm unhappy to see you up and about, but I really am serious about the council.”

“And I’m serious about the screaming,” Miranda replied as she pulled back. Before Chloe could scold her further, she reached for a broken piece of glass on a nearby table and picked it up only to throw it deeper into the building. It hit the floor with a faint cracking sound-

-and Chloe startled as the floor suddenly gave way beneath it, a horribly familiar yawning chasm swallowing it before that too disappeared again with a snap.

“Don’t go past the archway,” Miranda advised her with a comforting squeeze of her hand to Chloe’s shoulder.

Chloe shuddered, averting her eyes from the now disturbingly unmoving patch of floor to watch as Miranda crouched back down.

Her eyes shined bright for a moment as she blew a stream of air across a particularly rotten looking patch of floor. A small carpet of long, green blades of grass suddenly sprouted across it, waving as if in a breeze for a moment - or perhaps as if they were reaching for something - before settling and weaving themselves together into a smooth little patch of floor covering that quickly dulled and turned brown to match the floor. Beneath them, the damaged shards of wood began to knit back together as well, as if tiny roots were drawing the pieces back into their original place.

Once it had all gone still again, Miranda stood and turned a smile on Chloe. “I can’t begin to guess what the Witch Hunter did in here. The building has been slow to forget, but I eventually found a few things that are effective against the damage.”

“It wasn’t entirely Kaulder’s fault,” Chloe protested faintly, her eyes wandering involuntarily back and forth between the hidden chasm and the mended patch of floor. Miranda’s eyebrows had gone up in surprise though and, shaking her head to focus herself, Chloe reached for her again. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll tell you all about it later. Right now I just want to take you for lunch and thoroughly enjoy your company.”

Miranda didn’t protest being tugged back into Chloe’s arms and kissed as a distraction. “I missed you,” she murmured as Chloe wound her arms as tightly around Miranda as she could and dropped kisses along her hairline and the curve of her jaw.

“I should never have stayed away so long,” Chloe murmured, her kisses finally slowing until they were just standing, swaying, in the middle of the derelict room. “It took a little longer than we thought for things to quiet down.”

“I kept myself busy,” Miranda said with a smug smirk and haughty sniff.

Chloe just smiled back at her fondly as she thumbed at the corner of that smirk, unable to keep her hands to herself. “I can see that. Will you show me what else you’ve done before we go?”

Slowly Miranda led Chloe down the few safe passages to show her the extent of the repairs, most of which were clustered near the front door so far, and out to the alleyway behind the bar where she’d coaxed strong, magical vines up a wall to reinforce the damaged structure.

“We could knock sections of the wall out between each plant,” Chloe said thoughtfully as she examined Miranda’s work. “Perhaps put in new beams as we go to reinforce the vines. There used to be windows all along here once and I think I remember a lightwell above that we had blocked off. It was easier to cover it all up than deal with regulations for a potions bar with glass which humans could see through, but I’ve learnt a few new spells of my own since I left. We can probably put up a barrier spell out here as well in a pinch.”

“That’s a lot of trouble to go to for windows you’ll need to ward,” Miranda said. She stroked the leaves of the nearest plant which had already turned golden with the changing of the seasons and it curled gently around her hand in response, reaching for her like she was the sun.

Chloe curled herself around Miranda as well, tucking her chin over her shoulder as she pulled a face. “It would turn this side of the bar into a greenhouse for you, silly. You were always saying you wanted a proper one to supply more of our own ingredients, now’s a good a time as any to incorporate it. We can glass it in on all sides and make it a feature wall of plants for the customers to look at.”

Miranda went still in her arms, before suddenly twisting around. “Really?”

Chloe shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Happy Hallows. I guess it doesn’t make a half bad ‘sorry I’ve been gone so long’ gift either-,” she started to say. Her words were cut short with an oomph as Miranda whooped and threw her arms around her neck, dragging her down to kiss her again.

“This doesn’t mean you’re allowed to leave again anytime soon,” Miranda still scolded her as Chloe laughed breathlessly between kisses.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”


End file.
